ACF West Coast Newsletter Oct. 1, 1998 editors: Gaius Stern and Eric Owens Dear Newsletter subscribers, Welcome to the fifth year of the newsletter. This year may see some changes in format and frequency. Last year the newsletter came out whenever due to my studies abroad. This year, hopefully things will be more on track since Eric Owens will be helping out. The newsletter strives to inform the Quizbowl community of upcoming events, results from recent events, opportunities related to QB club interests, and open a forum for discussions about ways to improve the game. If you want to add someone (or remove them) from the subscriber list, please write me (not all recipients) to let me know of the change. Also, please feel free to write to me to let me know if there is something you would like to see in the next issue. Especially if you have results from a recent tournament. This (small) issue contains this year's agenda upcoming events results from UCI's The Awakening invite to UC Berkeley WIT 6 invite to Iowa Trevortational invite to Oklahoma Route 66 Classic IV invite to WSU Junior Turkey Quiz-Fest II invite to Illinois Salute to Mediocrity ---------- The Newsletter's goals and agenda The ACF newsletter is not affiliated with CBI or NAQT, two professional companies that sell QB questions and run tournaments. It is (obviously) associated -- at times loosely - with the ACF, the Academic Competition Federation. The newsletter comes out of the West Coast office of the ACF which is a virtually independent entity by virtue of its distance. In an effort to close that distance, the newsletter will make every effort to update information on tournaments and events of all sorts relating to QB for teams on the West bank of the Mississippi -- and events close enough that western teams may attend them. The newsletter frequently mentions events or companies without endorsing them. Please do not interpret this as endorsement, though plugs for upcoming tournaments often occur. On occasion the newsletter may list the prices of competing companies (airlines, question providers, etc). The agenda of the newsletter is only to inform. If information in such comparisions is erroneous, a letter to the editor is most kindly requested for correction in the next issue. Next issue will have contain some discussion of what ACF plans for the year regarding Regionals, a National year-end tournament, or other changes/additions to previous years' programs. Upcoming Tournaments (scroll down for College list) Note to clubs and administrators planning campus IMs: If you run a campus IM, we request that you try to choose a date that will not conflict with a college tournament near you so that players from your school can attend the local college tourney. The date of a HS event is a good choice for a campus IM, since no college players will be attending that event, anyway. High School events Cardinal Junior Classic 1 1998-10-24 Host: Stanford University Contact: Joshua L. Solomin Deadline: 1998-10-12 jsolomin@stanford.edu Rounds: 9-minute halves NAQT HS 1998-10-17 Host: Caltech Pasadena, CA Contact: Richard Mason Deadline: write to Rounds: NAQT format U. of Arkansas High School Tournament I: Payback 1998-10-24 Host: University of Arkansas Contact: Mike Wehrman Deadline: 1998-10-10 mwehrma@comp.uark.edu Rounds: ? Boren Cup VI 1998-11-07 Host: Oklahoma Contact: Eric Bell Deadline: 1998-10-23 ebell@ou.edu Rounds: NAQT WSUAQT High School Challenge Tournament Host: Wichita State Contact: Eric Owens Deadline: 1998-12-25 etowens@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu Rounds: Other (KSHSAA) Bay Area HS tournamnet April 1999 Host: Washington HS, Fremont CA Contact: TBA Deadline: TBA Rounds: TBA (last year Questions Unlimited) Cal Classic April 1999 Host UC-Berkeley Contact: TBA Deadline: TBA Rounds: self generated modified ACF HS College Tournaments: Trevortational 1998-10-10 Host: Iowa Contact: Trevor Schultz Rules: ? tschultz@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu Route 66 Classic IV 1998-10-10 Host: Oklahoma Contact: Eric Bell Rules: Modified NAQT ebell@ou.edu Deadline: 1998-10-01 WIT 6 (Western Invitational Tournament VI) 1998-10-16 Host: UC Berkeley Contact: Mike Usher Deadline: write to Mike Usher Deep Bench (by invitation only) 1998-10-23 Host: Minnesota Contact: Dave Dorman Rules: Deep Bench ddorman@bhs.umn.edu Deadline: ? WSUAQT Junior Turkey Quiz-Fest II: Lost in October 1998-10-31 Host: Wichita State Contact: Eric Owens Rules: timed NAQT, frosh-soph etowens@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu Deadline: 1998-10-23 Technophobia Three 1998-11-06 Host: Caltech Contact: Richard Mason Rules: Modified ACF Deadline: 1998-10-17 Salute to Mediocrity 1998-11-06 Host: Illinois Contact: Mike Angel Rules: Modified ACF angel@uiuc.edu Deadline: 1998-10-17 Also planned: November 14 ,1998 NAQT Conference Championship Western Quiz League Stanford, CA CCT-99 TBA BYU Perpetual Motion VI winter 1999 Cal Classic at Stanford February 13, 1999 NAQT Sectionals NAQT-West Pasadena, CA SCT-99 TBA UCLA or UC-Riverside and UC-Irvine ?? May 1998 results from UCR's "The Quickening" (from Scott Silverman) "The Quickening" was a tournament open to both college and HS teams to increase QB in southern CA. Attendence was about nine teams from Cal Tech, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA and two High Schools. Team Rankings --------------------- 1st Place = Stanford 2nd Place = CalTech [3rd Place = Robert Hentzel (Unofficial, yet accurate to the knowledge of the Executive Board)] Individual High Scores 1st Place = Robert Hentzel 2nd Place = Adam Kemezis UC Berkeley WIT 6 Western Invitational VI "The Buzz-erkeley Bowl" UC-Berkeley invites all QB players to attend the WIT 6 the weekend of Cot. 16-17 at UC-Berkeley in Dwinnelle Hall (as before). A Guerilla Unabuzzer tournament will follow WIT VI if enough people stay afterwards. As is traditional at Berkeley, we will feed all interested teams breakfast of Bagels and coffee and juice on Sat. morning. Friday October 16, 1998, rules meeting: 6:30 p.m. Saturday October 17, Bagels 9:00 a.m.; play starts at 9:30 sharp! (Forfeit matches may be made up at winning team's discretion during lunch) The tournament will be untimed rounds of 20 questions. The Berkeley ACF Rules will be used. We ask teams to submit one packet of questions. This request is backed up with discounts of great financial value. The tournament will be divided into 2 brackets (attendance permitting), open division and jv division. JV teams do not have to submit a packet. Open division: Eligibility - Any team consisting of anyone who wants to register. This means that you can make alumni teams, corporate teams, college teams, cross-college teams etc. The college varsity championship shall be awarded to the highest placing team from one college. The open division championship will be awarded to the highest placing team from the open division, which may or may not be the college champion. JV division: Eligibility - anyone with less than 2 full years playing experience in collegiate academic competitions. College Bowl and Trash tournament play does not count as they are not academic competitions. The college junior varsity championship shall be awarded to the highest placing JV team from one college. For more information write to Jason Hong at University of Iowa Trevortational Announcing Iowa's First Fall Invitational The 1998 TREVORTATIONAL Hosted by the University of Iowa in lovely Iowa City, IA. First Look: When: Saturday, October 10th, 1998 Where: Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa Campus Rounds: 9-minute timed halves, all 10-point Toss-Ups and 30 point Bonuses. Teams: Open to eligible teams, chimerae and solo players. Format: We will guarantee every team at least 12 rounds. The actual format will be determined once we know how many teams we have. Awards: Separate awards for eligible teams and for open teams/solo players. Also -- all-star awards. Why the Trevortational? Because Trevor Schultz is writing all of the questions! Packet Distribution for all of the questions in the tournament roughly breaks down into these categories: (40%) Science Literature History (35%) Current Events Fine Arts Social Science (25%) Religion Mythology Sports Pop Culture General Knowledge Difficulty: Questions range in length and in difficulty, however, most bonuses are designed to truly reward balanced and knowledgeable teams. Most toss-up answers will be familiar to two competing teams and two _good_ teams should answer over 90% of the toss-ups and convert over 50% of the bonus points. As per any tournament that Trevor writes questions for -- there will be a number of questions that introduce new and interesting bits of info. to a competitive situation that will keep even the most experienced veterans on their toes. However, there will still be hundreds of questions to keep even the most canon-hungry buzzer hands satisfied. Assistant TD: Nichol Vogeler -- back for another tournament. (She didn't quite get enough punishment from This Tournament Goes to 11!) :) Costs: 1st Team: $110 2nd Team: $ 90 3rd Team: $ 70 Chimera : $ 80 Solo : $ 40 (Min. cost with discounts for solo is $25) 1st Working Buzzer: -$15 2nd Working Buzzer: -$ 5 1st Working Clock : -$10 2nd Working Clock : -$ 5 So please bring equipment! Extra Bonus: As many of you know, Eric Hillemann and Rob Hentzel wrote and edited a lerge set of questions that they have used for a special singles/shootoout tournament. They have run the questions at Minnesota and the questions have been heard on both the West and East coasts as well. As a fun activity for those arriving on Friday night, Eric has agreed to run the questions yet again in conjunction with our tournament. This event is open to any and all who have not previous heard nor purchased them and it's free. We will be running this modified shootout from 7-10 p.m (also in the IMU) and there will be many people from the Iowa team participating (as none of us have heard these questions). There are no prizes yet planned for this shootout, but maybe Eric or R. will think of something. So -- if you are interested in coming to the Trevortational, Please e-mail Trevor himself at tschultz@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu We have no ceiling on the number of teams yet but we may have to have an upper limit of 16 just given our staffing capabilities. Hotel Info. and such will be offered once you confirm a place in the tournament! Thanks -- and I hope y'all will come to soak in the air, colors and excitement of a fall quiz bowl tournament Iowa City! University of Oklahoma Route 66 Classic IV While the rest of the state is mindlessly watching the insignificant little affair in a dilapidated stadium called the Cotton Bowl, the geeks of the Oklahoma Academic Team invite one and all to the Route 66 Classic IV: No More of Eric Bell's Feeble Attempts at Funny Subtitles. Come to Norman on October 10, 1998 for an info meeting at 10:00 and then play 20 question untimed matches until we get bored or run out of packets. There is NO ENTRY FEE. We don't want your money. NO ENTRY FEE. All teams are required to submit a 30/30 packet of questions (NAQT Sectionals difficulty or less, if in doubt, be too easy rather than too hard) to Eric Bell (ebell@ou.edu) by October 1 and each school is asked to bring a buzzer system. That's it. NO ENTRY FEE. Shall we say it again? NO ENTRY FEE. You understand? Good. We are not enforcing specific packet breakdowns, but please keep packets balanced and playable. Please feel free to email us your entries and any questions you might have. Eric Bell (ebell@ou.edu) Wichita State University Junior Turkey Quiz-Fest II The Wichita State University Academic Quiz Team is pleased to announce its second annual "junior-bird" tournament, Junior Turkey Quiz-Fest II: Lost in October. This years tournament will be held on Saturday, October 31, 1998, on the campus of Wichita State University. Questions for this event will come from NAQT tour set #11, thus no packet submission is necessary. We will be playing official NAQT rules, including 9 minute halves. The tournament is open to all freshman, sophomores, and any other first year players. Also, the tournament is open to any team from a school that in the recent past has only played CBCI. Entry Fees are as follows: First team from a school: $70 each Each additional team: $60 each (+ $70 for 1st team) Experienced moderator: -$15 each Scorekeeper: -$5 each Working Buzzer system: -$5 each Visible Clock: -$5 each Set of questions (12 rds) $20 each The minimum entry fee is $40 per team (not including question sets). Please direct any inquiries to me at etowens@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu. The entry deadline is October 23, 1998. Eric Owens (etowens@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu) Vice President & Tournaments Director WSU Academic Quiz Team University of Illinois Salute to Mediocrity Masters Tournament The University of Illinois Academic Buzzer Team would like to announce the 1998 Illinois Salute to Mediocrity Masters Tournament. It appears that the rights to the name Dr. Seuss were recently bought by the folks who make Sesame Street--we will no longer hold any Dr. Seuss events until we have a clearer idea of the legal status of such use. The tournament will be held on Friday, November 6th and Saturday, November 7th. We ask that teams submit one good round of questions for modified ACF-style play. Masters, chimerae, and collegiate teams alike are welcome as always. There will be separate trophies given to the appropriate winners (e.g. best collegiate team, etc.). Base fee: $85 Buzzer set: -$10 Everyday packet is submitted late: +$5 Packet submitted by October 9th: -$20 Packet deadline: Friday, October 23rd Question Guidelines (loosely ACF-ish) ________________________________________________ Literature: 5 tossups/5 boni British: 2/2 American: 2/2 World/Euro/Ancient: 1/1 History: 5/5 American: 2/2 European: 2/2 World: 1/1 Science: 5/5 Physics: 1/1 Biology: 1/1 Chemistry: 1/1 Math/Computer Science: 1/1 Earth Science/Astronomy: 1/1 Fine Arts: 2/2 Music/Dance: 1/1 (if you cannot get a good dance question, 1T/1B of music is fine) Painting/Sculpture/Architecture: 1/1 Mythology: 1/1 Geography: 1/1 Psychology/Sociology: 1/1 Economics/Government: 1/1 Religion/Philosophy: 1/1 Sports: 1/1 Current Events: 1/1 Popular Culture: 1/1 Film: 1/1 TOTAL: 26 tossups/26 boni Questions may be submitted via e-mail (preferred) or disk (Corel WP 8 please). Directions to Champaign-Urbana will be sent out at a later date. Contact: Mike Angel (angel@uiuc.edu) Tournament Director 1998 Illinois Salute to Mediocrity Masters Tournament